A General Architecture of Mobile Social Network Services

The widespread use of cellular telephones and the availability of user-location information are facilitating personalized location-based applications. The subscribed services that exist today have aimed to address the needs of entertainment, blind dates, and finding friends or family. In this study, we explore the possibilities of mobile social network services (MSNSs) in the context of social services. The research was started with an aim to use mobile social network services as a measure to increase social connectedness and improve the quality of life for the- majority-of-otherwise-employable-persons-who-remain- unemployed,- rarely access- appropriate- community- services,- and- are- socially- isolated. An interactive, multimedia, location-based application approach has been proposed to address the needs that frequently arise in the field work of providing supportive social services. Combining location aware search technology and personnel profile matching, the proposed modular and general architecture enables social workers, their colleagues, and other participating professionals to keep each other connected, informed, and organized as a mobile community and a supportive network for those in need. One of the advantages of the proposed architecture is that no new location modules have to be implemented inside the Wi-Fi distribution network or cellular´s core network. Furthermore, mash-up of Web services is used; this approach makes the architecture more modular and easier to leverage existing web services. A prototype has been implemented and the results are presented.